Sailboat family returns Wednesday

Navy brings family home

The Navy frigate Vandegrift will return to San Diego on Wednesday afternoon following a roughly 2,400-mile rescue mission that has stoked controversy and a media whirlwind.

The round trip cost the Navy at least $216,000, based on the average daily operating cost of an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate.

The ship is carrying Eric and Charlotte Kaufman and their two daughters, 3 and 1, who the sailors rescued from their 36-foot sailboat about 900 miles off Cabo San Lucas. The family issued a Coast Guard distress call on Thursday because the 1-year-old had been sick for days and wasn’t responding to medication.

Also, authorities said Tuesday that the sailboat the was adrift and took on water whenever its engine was engaged. All communications power had been lost.

The frigate is also carrying four California Air National Guard 129th Rescue Wing pararescuers who flew from the Bay Area on Thursday to attend to the family. The four guardsmen parachuted into the ocean near the family sailboat Rebel Heart, inflated a raft and stayed with the Kaufmans to render medical aid.

The Vandegrift arrived overnight between Saturday and Sunday and picked up the Kaufmans and the four pararescuers at first light.

Media coverage of the rescue mission has exploded – largely driven by public criticism of the Kaufman’s choice to take their young girls on an around-the-world journey, but also fueled by details in the Kaufman’s own blog about their journey and a sister’s Facebook account of their plight.

By Tuesday afternoon, more than 30 media outlets -- including all the major networks -- had signed up to cover the Vandegrift’s return to San Diego Naval Base, even though the Kaufman family will no longer be on board.

According to a Navy news release, the family will get off the frigate at North Island Naval Air Station when the ship stops there to take on ordnance for an upcoming deployment.

The Kaufmans, who lived in San Diego before departing on their cruise, aren’t expected to speak to media.

Many comments on utsandiego.com and elsewhere have called for the family to reimburse the military for the rescue effort.

But Navy and California National Guard officials have said that’s not their policy, as no-cost rescues follow long-established tradition and the Safety of Life at Sea Convention of the International Maritime Organization.

No official tally of the entire cost is presently available.

A California National Guard spokesman didn’t respond to a request for the cost to operate the MC-130P Combat Shadow plane and two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters that were dispatched from the Bay Area for the mission.

The Coast Guard coordinated the rescue but didn’t send ships or aircraft.

The Vandegrift cost estimate is based on the daily operating cost of a frigate, which is about $39,300. The ship departed on the rescue Friday morning, so the mission lasted about five and a half days.

Navy officials have stressed that the money to operate the ship would have been spent anyway, as naval ships regularly train off the coast.